An eventful and momentous time is happening on the Wayne State College campus this week as mass communication film producer, Professor Mike White, starts wrapping up and putting the final finishing touches on his new film, “The Painter.”
“The Painter” is a romantic drama that is set in 1919 shortly after World War I, which tells the story of a young boy named John Amory who is a gifted painter but is haunted by the horrors of World War 1. He meets his muse Lily after finding a job from Lily’s father, Florence Doyle. But things seem to go downhill after the father finds out that Lily is in fact John Amory’s muse. After spending nearly two years in the making of this film, White explains how this film has influenced him and how it has inspired him and his job in the process.
“Professors have to do some form of research or creative work and for me, because I’m a film professor, I find it best that if I’m on set and learning a lot then I feel better,” White said.
White was hesitant at first to make another period film because his first period film, “The Cross” took a long time to make and making period films can be hard to do. Overall, he concluded that he wanted to make another period film because so many people were asking for another one. Despite hard work and long hours there is still an exciting creative part about being a director and a film producer.White believes that being on set, working and learning all the time makes him better at his job. For this particular set, White explains how there were a lot of things that he doesn’t normally do when filming this movie.
“We shot a war scene that included explosions, costumed soldiers, prop weapons, smoke and things I don’t normally do in production,” White said. “We also built a set in our new studio, our film studio here had never had a set built in it because the studio was so new and we actually held a class this summer called feature filmmaking and the students got to work on a distributed feature film.”
White also did something that was extraordinary. White got to share this film with his film majors, and he explains how much of a thrilling opportunity it has been.
“We are able to do things outside the scope of the typical film production classes during the academic year, such as the set construction and special practical effects in the war scenes, “White said.
White also explains how he got the film’s idea from his interest in international cinema and fine art.
“I spent several months watching artists’ biopics in various languages and became fascinated by them. ‘The Cross,’ my last picture, was a period piece, and there was lot of pressure to produce another because of its success,” White said.
White is known for his creative work, and he loves the experience of sharing his ideas and opinions with his students. It helps the students that are on set be able to study his creativeness and the films creativeness as well.
“I originally wrote the screenplay to get into the UCLA, the professional programming and screenwriting,” White said.
The making of this movie was such a long process but a fulfilling one, and White explains what he wants people to get out of this film and why they should go see it in theaters on September 30th at the Majestic Theatre in Wayne, Nebraska.
“I really just want people to go to the cinema and enjoy dramatic cinema, I think a lot of what we watch is probably not serious cinema and that’s what I’m interested in and that’s what I want students to,” White said.
